A visit to Mount Tabor, Portland, Oregon

Birders enjoying spring migration on Mount Tabor, Portland, Oregon, 7 May 2011 by Greg Gillson.

 

Today I joined an Oregon Field Ornithologists' public field trip to Mount Tabor, in the middle of Portland, Oregon. Shawneen Finnegan and Dave Irons led the trip, and it was joined by almost 20 others.

This was my first visit to Mount Tabor, thus I was glad to have experienced local guides showing us the best birding areas.

The purpose of the field trip was to view Neotropical migrants. Migration is best with unsettled weather. Today was such a day, with 95% cloud cover and occasional sprinkles. Birds were actively moving through the tree tops, backlit by the overcast skies. Thus, while it was good bird migration weather, it was not good bird photography weather.

We didn't have a "fall out"--a spectacular migration event with thousands of birds of scores of species arriving overnight. Still, we did have good numbers of birds.

I saw several species for the first time this year, including several flycatchers: Hammond's, Dusky, and Olive-sided. The Dusky is a rather rare migrant west of the Cascades. But some migrate through the west side lowlands and then move upslope as spring advances up the mountains. We also saw a couple Pacific-slope Flycatchers.

 

Olive-sided Flycatcher, Mount Tabor, Portland, Oregon, 7 May 2011 by Greg Gillson.

 

Other birds included a rare west side (of the Cascades) Calliope Hummingbird, which I did not identify. I heard, but never saw, a Western Tanager. There were various sparrows on the slopes, identified as migrants as they weren't in habitats or areas that they would be found in during winter or breeding season. A couple of Warbling Vireos were evident in the budding big leaf maples. Numerous Hermit Thrushes were present, as was an early Swainson's Thrush.

Most conspicuous were the warblers: I saw perhaps a dozen Nashville Warblers, 30 Orange-crowned Warblers, a couple MacGillivray's Warblers, numerous Black-throated Gray, Townsend's, and Yellow-rumped Warblers, several Wilson's Warblers, and a single Hermit Warbler. These birds sing and call during migration, making warbler watching an enjoyable annual spring event.

Bird list on eBird (52 species).

 

Townsend's Warbler, Mount Tabor, Portland, Oregon, 7 May 2011 by Greg Gillson.

 

What makes Mount Tabor so good for Neotropical migrants? When is the best time to visit? That's a topic for tomorrow.

Friday Foto: Western Bluebird

Western Bluebird, Cooper Mountain Nature Park, Beaverton, Oregon, 19 March 2011 by Greg Gillson.

 

See a previous article on Western Bluebirds.

eBird and the State of the Birds

On May 3, 20011 Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Agriculture Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment Harris Sherman released the 2011 State of the Birds Report.

The report overview states:

This year’s report provides the nation’s first assessment of the distribution of birds on public lands and helps public agencies identify which species have significant potential for conservation in each habitat. The state of our birds is a measurable indicator of how well we are doing as stewards of our environment. The signal is clear. Greater conservation efforts on public lands and waters are needed to realize the vision of a nation sustained economically and spiritually by abundant natural resources and spectacular wildlife.

You can read the full report at:
http://www.stateofthebirds.org/SOTB_2011-05-03-1200-WEB.pdf

The State of the Birds report is written by the North American Bird Conservation Initiative, U.S. Committee:

American Bird Conservancy
Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies
Bureau of Land Management
Cornell Lab of Ornithology
Department of Defense/DoD Partners in Flight
Klamath Bird Observatory
National Audubon Society
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
National Park Service
The Nature Conservancy
University of Idaho
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
USDA Forest Service
U.S. Geological Survey

Best of all, birders themselves contributed to this report by recording their sightings in the citizen science program eBird.

The report has this thank you side bar.

"Thank You to eBird Volunteers"

Our understanding of bird distributions has greatly improved thanks to the thousands of bird watchers who have contributed observations to eBird (www.eBird.org). This effort is especially important for tracking seasonal and fine-scale changes in bird distributions, which is not possible with other bird-monitoring programs. However, even this massive observation network provides only imperfect information for assessing the year-round status of birds on many remote public lands across the U.S., including Alaska, Hawaii, and island territories. We urge birders to submit more observations to eBird from public refuges, parks, forests, and wilderness areas. We also urge agencies to support the submission of current and historical records to eBird and other data archives.

What do I have in common with Spiderman?

Myrtle Warbler, Oregon, 29 April 2011 by Greg Gillson.

 

Blank stares.

I might as well as have been speaking a foreign language. Perhaps I was.

This birding couple was looking at a dozen or so warblers flitting about in the oak tree. They were obviously not just "eagle watchers." They were birders.

The birds were all singing the same sweet rolling song: weevee-weevee-weevee-weevee-swee-swee-swee-swee.

Wanting to be friendly I approached this birding couple.

It was a simple enough statement. I said, "All I hear are Myrtle Warblers."

Then I got those blank stares.

"Myrtle Warblers. You know, the white-throated form of Yellow-rumped Warblers?"

"Oh," they said. And then to themselves, "Butter-butts."

As they turned and walked quickly away they said, "We don't identify birds by song." Was that a disdainful tone? I must be mistaken.

Why do I feel like Peter Parker?

Peter Parker: Some spiders change colors to blend into their environment. It's a defense mechanism.
Harry Osborn: Peter, what possibly makes you think I would want to know that?
Peter Parker: Who wouldn't?
- - - - - - -
Spiderman (2002)

Who wouldn't want to know every field identifiable form of bird?

Who wouldn't want to learn to identify birds by ear?

So, what do I have in common with Spiderman? Only Peter Parker.

Move over Peter Parker. Make room for another nerd.

Why I disobey Roger Tory Peterson

Puget Sound White-crowned Sparrow, one of 3 subspecies of White-crowned Sparrows in the Pacific NW, and one of 5 subspecies in North America--all easy to tell apart, Newport, Oregon, 15 September 2008 by Greg Gillson.

 

"Subspecies have no definite entity, but merely represent subdivisions within the geographic range of a species. They are races, usually determined by morphological characteristics such as slight differences in measurements, shades of color, etc. These subdivisions, generally discernible only by comparison of museum series, are seldom apparent in the field and should not concern the field observer.... No one but an expert comparing specimens would detect the difference. So forget about subspecies."
Roger Tory Peterson
A Field Guide to Western Birds. 1969.

My 1969 Peterson Field Guide is well worn. The pages and binding are barely held together with several types of tape. Every page of that treasured "obsolete" field guide has annotations--new birds added to the North American list, key field marks underlined, changes in bird's names, additional ID pointers and my personal voice descriptions added in the margins.

That field guide is also full of annotations of "lumps" of formerly considered full species into subspecies, as well as "splits" of formerly considered subspecies into full species.

Just paging through, here are some that I recorded or remember....

Pacific Loon split from Arctic Loon
Clark's Grebe split from Western Grebe
Black-vented Shearwater split from Manx Shearwater
Nazca Booby split from Masked Booby
Green Heron lumped with Striated Heron to form Green-backed Heron
Green Heron and Striated Heron split from Green-backed Heron
Bewick's Swan and Whistling Swan lumped into Tundra Swan
Cackling Goose split from Canada Goose
Common Teal lumped with Green-winged Teal (America's only)
Black Scoter split from Common Scoter
White-tailed Kite lumped with Black-shouldered Kite
White-tailed Kite split from Black-shouldered Kite
Harlan's Hawk lumped with Red-tailed Hawk
Blue Grouse split into Sooty Grouse and Dusky Grouse
Lesser Golden Plover split into Pacific Golden-Plover and American Golden-Plover
Wilson's Snipe lumped with Common Snipe
Wilson's Snipe split from Common Snipe
Yellow-footed Gull split from Western Gull
Thayer's Gull split from Herring Gull
Long-billed Murrelet split from Marbled Murrelet
Screech Owl split into Western Screech-Owl and Eastern Screech-Owl
Whip-Poor-Will split into Eastern Whip-Poor-Will and Mexican Whip-Poor-Will
Red-shafted Flicker, Yellow-shafted Flicker, and Gilded Flicker lumped into Common Flicker
Common Flicker split into Northern Flicker and Gilded Flicker
Red-naped Sapsucker and Red-breasted Sapsucker split from Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Couch's Kingbird split from Tropical Kingbird
Traill's Flycatcher split into Willow Flycatcher and Alder Flycatcher
Western Flycatcher split into Pacific-slope Flycatcher and Cordilleran Flycatcher
Scrub Jay split into Western Scrub-Jay, Florida Scrub-Jay, and Island Scrub-Jay
Plain Titmouse split into Oak Titmouse and Juniper Titmouse
Brown-throated Wren lumped into House Wren
Winter Wren split into Eastern Winter Wren, Pacific Wren, and Eurasian Wren
Bicknell's Thrush split from Gray-cheeked Thrush
Solitary Vireo split into Cassin's Vireo, Blue-headed Vireo, and Plumbeous Vireo
Myrtle Warbler and Audubon's Warbler lumped into Yellow-rumped Warbler
Bullock's Oriole and Baltimore Oriole lumped into Northern Oriole
Northern Oriole split into Baltimore Oriole and Bullock's Oriole
Great-tailed Grackle split from Boat-tailed Grackle
Gray-crowned Rosy Finch, Black Rosy Finch, and Brown-capped Rosy Finch lumped into Rosy-Finch
Rosy-Finch split into Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch, Black Rosy-Finch, and Brown-capped Rosy-Finch
Rufous-sided Towhee split into Spotted Towhee and Eastern Towhee
Brown Towhee split into California Towhee and Canyon Towhee
Oregon Junco, White-winged Junco, Gray-headed Junco, and Slate-colored Junco lumped into Dark-eyed Junco

If subspecies "have no definite entity" and differences "are seldom apparent in the field," then why were 36 of these non-entities turned into full species, complete with definite field identification characters?

On average, since I began birding in 1972, nearly one subspecies per year in North America has magically become a species from its former status as a non-entity!

Frankly, there are many more subspecies that will likely become full species in the near future. Splits are likely to come from within Warbling Vireos, Fox Sparrows, Marsh Wrens, Yellow-rumped Warblers (again), Western Scrub-Jays (further), Leach's Storm-Petrels, and more.

So, though I respect what Peterson started, please forgive me if I disobey his advice on this topic and continue to identify White-crowned Sparrow or Canada Goose subspecies or Fox Sparrow groups when I am just as sure of them as I am of Clark's Grebes, Black-vented Shearwaters, Western Scrub-Jays, Red-breasted Sapsuckers, and Spotted Towhees--all former subspecies. [See David Sibley's list of field identifiable subspecies.]

And please pardon me when I take notice and document subspecific variation in Song Sparrows, Savannah Sparrows, or Spotted Towhees--even if I can't tell for sure what subspecies they are. After all, such exercises help improve my identification and observational skills.

Peterson would approve of that.